INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) - A body found on the northeast side Tuesday was confirmed Wednesday to be a missing woman from Muncie for eight months.
A Crime Stoppers tip led investigators to the body of 23-year-old Angie Barlow. The coroner confirmed her identity on Wednesday.
Barlow's mother was able to see her daughter eight months after she disappeared.
"You can't even describe what that is like to have to sit somewhere and identify your 23-year-old daughter. And the thoughts going through your head. She's never going to be a mom. She's never going to be an aunt. She's never going to get married. Someone took all of that from her. And in taking that from her they took that away from us," Kramer said.
She said while Barlow's family was waiting to meet with the coroner, they were hoping until the very last minute that the body found was not their daughter.
"Honestly, we just kept hope alive that we would find her alive. That is what it was from the get go. Until somebody proved to me otherwise, that's what we were going to believe," Kramer said.
She said the news that the body was Angie was "very devastating."
"I know a lot of people are saying 'Well, it gives you closure'. That is not the closure we want, it's not," she said. "You don't want that kind of closure. The closure you want is to bring your little girl home safe."
The family is now committed to the search for a suspect.
"I think now we are more determined than ever. We will have justice for our daughter. One way or another, there will be justice," Kramer said.
Barlow is from Muncie but disappeared from an Indianapolis party.
Three weeks after she disappeared, her car was found on the east side of Indianapolis. Then nothing until the tip to Crime Stoppers.
"Finally, someone had a conscience and came forward. We don't know who it was, but that really doesn't make anything easier, either," Kramer said.
"I love her. I still do. I know she's in heaven. She's my baby girl," said Kramer's father, Stephen.
The family won't get custody of Angie's body for another week. Police are still examining it for any clues to help track down her killer.
Christina Kramer just had to see the police photos of the victim's tattoos and she knew it was her daughter's body found Tuesday.
"The thoughts that run through your mind when you are sitting there looking at those pictures is - you just can't even describe what's going through your head," she said.
The family has gone through it since Barlow disappeared from a party at an apartment off Harcourt Road.
Right before the party, she texted friends the address of that apartment.
"In case I go missing," she wrote. It's something her mother says she always did as a precaution.
"I wonder if she had just the intuition about that." Angie's mother says "unfortunately now I'll never know."
"I'd really just like justice for my daughter. I want the person or persons responsible for this, I want them prosecuted, I want them put away," said Stephen Kramer.
Angie's Muncie and Indianapolis family and friends had searched, held fundraisers for a reward, posted flyers and even launched a website.
Christina Kramer has a question for whoever killed her child.
"Why did you take my daughter. Why did you take her away from us. What was so important to you that you had to take away my little girl?
She holds memories close. The daughter who loved her siblings - their last photo together etched on a pendant.
The victim's younger sister Wendy Kramer lost a loving pal, the one who helped with prom planning and who would have seen Wendy graduate high school this spring.
"Whoever did this took one of the biggest pieces of me. And I can't get that back," Wendy said.
The family says they will not be able to claim Angie's body until next week. Investigators want to find any evidence that could lead to the killer.
A determination of cause and manner of death could take another six weeks or more. The coroner is waiting for lab results to come back.
